An Ill-Fated Bond and the End
An Ill-Fated Bond and the End
It's a damn small world.
The cliché slipped out before I could stop it.
Twenty-five years old.
Not much of a life yet, but what life I'd had was cramped and narrow enough.
The mistress my father used to run around with when I was a kid? Now she's my boss. The bitch who tormented me all through school? That boss's daughter.
"Hey, you ignoring me?"
And so on.
Dismissing it all as a string of wild coincidences would've been far too generous to my shit luck.
"You gone deaf, you goddamn loser? Huh? How the fuck do you get older and not change one bit?"
The wretched connection forged back in school had stuck to the periphery of my life like a stubborn stain.
It was, for the most part, impressively consistent.
"You can't even do simple math now? No, seriously, you fucking retard — how many times is this now? Huh? You did your army time and you're still this fucking useless?"
Ill-fated connection.
Two words were more than enough.
Could any other phrase in the world describe my relationship with her more precisely?
"Hey, say something. At least make up an excuse. Wow, you are seriously the most infuriating little shit."
—Thwack!
"Ack...! I'm sorry! I'll do better! Definitely next time!"
The sharp sting that snapped against the back of my head yanked me right out of my thoughts and forced me to confront my miserable reality.
"You always talk a good game. Ugh, fuck, why the hell do you work here, of all places? There are tons of other gigs. Why here?"
"Ah... the minimum wage isn't bad, and it's close to home..."
"Oh, great, close to home! Even fucking better."
As always, I gave a sycophantic "Heh-heh..." and played along with her mood.
No — I had to play along.
Because this insufferable bitch with piss-poor manners was the daughter of the mistress who'd had the affair with my father, and the daughter of the owner of this convenience store.
My luck really is cosmically shit... of all the places I could've ended up, fucking here.
"Don't laugh. All the fucking register shortages you've racked up over the past year add up to at least twenty grand, you little shit."
"Ah, no. Still, today was only two hundred won..."
"Are you seriously trying to use that as an excuse right now?"
"...No. I'm sorry."
She — Ha Hui-ryeong, my designated schoolyard tormentor — clicked her tongue and irritably swept her bangs aside.
When she did, her glossy black hair swayed gently, and a faintly fragrant scent tickled my nose.
...This goddamn bitch.
I've always thought this, but her scent and her looks were exactly my type.
Delicately sculpted features, the sharp eyes of a haughty cat, taller than the average woman with a generous chest and a well-proportioned, slender figure.
If it weren't for that rough mouth of hers, she'd be flawless in every way.
Especially those tits.
Those massive mounds were essentially pornography. Every time I saw them, an involuntary sigh of admiration escaped me.
Swallowing dryly at the sight had practically become a daily ritual.
No doubt I'd be indebted to them again tonight before bed.
"Hey, whatever. Anything unusual to report?"
While I was secretly indulging in my lecherous daydreams, she fiddled with her phone and asked offhandedly.
I tilted my head slightly.
Hmm, was there anything unusual?
I scanned my memory briefly, but nothing particularly special came to mind.
"Nah, nothing. Unless you count, uh... me messing up the tally a little?"
"'A little' my ass! Do you seriously wanna get your shit kicked in? Want me to jog your memory of the old days?"
"Ah, no! It's fine! Alright, Hui-ryeong, I'm heading out."
"Get the hell out, then."
"G-good work..."
I left a polite farewell, thinking I was being properly courteous, but as usual, the response I got was cold enough to freeze summer solid.
Her raised middle finger was a bonus.
Seriously, what a prickly bitch...
Still, I figured I should take comfort in the fact that she'd mellowed some since school.
At least she wasn't beating me like a dog in the summer heat like she used to... right?
Repeating that to myself, I stuffed the expired goods I'd sorted earlier in the walk-in into my bag.
Got my expired haul packed up nicely, so it was time to head out.
It was a decent enough day that I caught myself humming a tune.
Hoisting my bag onto my back, I headed for the shop door in high spirits.
—AAAAARGH!!!!
I flinched.
To be precise, I tried to step out.
That was before the piercing scream tore through the air outside.
'Wh-what the hell?'
My whole body jolted.
It wasn't even a rooster's crow, but a scream that rang out loudly at the crack of dawn.
No, judging by how they kept erupting one after another, it was more like howling.
The signs were bad. Really, really bad.
"What the fuck? Wh-what's going on?"
I wasn't the only one startled, it seemed.
Ha Hui-ryeong, who'd been fiddling with her phone, shot to her feet, her eyes widening like lanterns.
"Hey, what's happening out there?"
"Uh... no idea. Should I go take a quick look?"
"Ssss. Something feels off."
She was right.
As much as I hated agreeing with her, a chill was creeping up my spine.
I had the gut feeling that if I stepped outside right now, I'd be in for a very ugly sight.
Call it animal instinct.
I would've gone if she'd told me to, but she seemed just as uneasy, and actually stopped me from making any rash moves.
"Hey, wait. Hold off on going out. I'm a hundred percent sure something's going down outside right now."
"Huh, you sure?"
"I just gave you permission, dipshit. What, you don't like it?"
Do you call that giving permission, you bitch?
Even after all this time, I still instinctively tensed up in front of her.
Honestly, the only reason I'd kept working here was that our shifts barely overlapped. If it weren't for that, I'd have bolted ages ago.
I let out a bitter chuckle at my shit reality.
Ha Hui-ryeong's brow furrowed slightly when she saw me laugh, but maybe because the situation outside was anything but normal, she didn't chew me out like she usually would.
"Ssss, Jjintta. Maybe we should lock the door, just in case?"
"Do we really need to go that far...?"
"I'm nervous, alright? That noise just now? Sounded like somebody was dying. Didn't you think so?"
What if some psycho with a knife comes charging in here?
"You've got a point."
"'You've got a point' my ass. Save your stupid talk and lock the damn door."
Click.
I caught the key Ha Hui-ryeong half-heartedly tossed to me with practiced ease, then stood on my tiptoes and locked the front door.
Smooth as could be.
That whole sequence of actions — not an ounce of waste.
Wasn't exactly proud of it, but it seemed my experience as her errand boy back in school hadn't been a total waste after all.
Meanwhile, Ha Hui-ryeong killed all the lights, then went to the back of the stockroom and brought out a long floor mop, which she handed to me.
"What's this for?"
"You never know. Just hold onto it."
Her eyes were dead serious as she said it.
Part of me wondered if this was really necessary, but her intuition was usually spot on, so I quietly obeyed.
I remembered her instincts proving quite useful back in the day.
It was right around then.
——a screech of metal, then BOOM!! A wailing alarm—
Outside, a deafening crash mingled with people's frantic screams.
It was close.
Whatever just happened, it was right outside the window.
A truck and a car had collided. Black smoke rose in columns here and there, and people were sprinting across the street in a mindless panic.
It was a scene of complete and utter chaos.
"What the—? What is this?"
Ha Hui-ryeong crouched down right beside me and warily observed the situation beyond the window.
Then her voice trembled slightly, and undisguised bewilderment filled her eyes.
"Is this some kind of movie shoot...?"
"Seems too real for that."
Dismissing it as mere filming was impossible. The people outside were in a state of collective panic, acting like this was truly happening.
For a hidden camera show, it was in remarkably poor taste.
"Right? Uhh... eek!"
Ha Hui-ryeong's lips quivered, and then she let out a small, girlish shriek.
I stared at her, more than a little dumbfounded, and she pointed a trembling hand at a figure outside the window.
"Wh-what is that...? Fuck, what the hell is that?!"
"What is it, what?"
"You fucking asshole, look for yourself! Fuck, I said look!"
The urgency in her voice dragged my gaze along the line of her pointing finger.
Over there was... how should I put this...
A blood-drenched man stumbling along, his arms twisted at unnatural angles.
The instant I saw that, I was seriously rattled, though I kept it off my face.
No way — he can move in that condition?
Just how tough of a bastard is he?
Half awe.
Half revulsion at the grotesque sight.
I felt my brow furrow on its own.
"...And he's not the only one, huh?"
That wasn't all.
As time passed, more people with severe injuries that looked like they should've killed them instantly began multiplying exponentially in the streets.
And they were chasing people.
The people who were shrieking and fleeing for their lives.
It was a very dynamic chase scene.
"Hmm..."
Watching it unfold, I found myself gripped by a strange sense of déjà vu.
The odd sensation of having seen this somewhere before.
Not with my own two eyes, but the situation itself was a dead ringer for a genre popular media has beaten to death.
"Hey, this... this can't be that, right?"
"I... want to believe it's not."
The two of us exchanged glances and simultaneously swallowed dryly.
We were thinking the same thing.
Zombies.
The walking dead.
Monsters that attack humans, bite and devour them, and turn them into the same kind of beings.
Probably couldn't be anything else.
I managed a dry smile.
"...Looks just like something out of a movie."
"...."
No answer came back.
But I was certain she was feeling the exact same thing I was.
People were attacking people.
Biting, tearing flesh, spattering blood.
Piercing screams were interspersed sporadically with inhuman roars.
What unfolded before our eyes was a scene straight out of an absurd, tasteless joke.
Miserably enough, the world had turned into a B-movie in the blink of an eye.